The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1887-03-12
THE DRESSING ROOMS.
AN ACTRESS SPEAKS POiNTEDLY OF
GREAT GRIEVANCE.

q Den Infested With ViIlainous Cock
| roaches-A Nuisance.
The radiant sdolescsnt was talking to the
sunny haired actress, or rather was drawing
her out and doing the listening. He was ono
Of those little, STACEY men who blink and look
wise when they know nothing about the sub
ject in hand, and who maintain An appear
ancs OF blandly stold imbecihty when their
mind is not quite a blank.
"And so they treat you so badly behind the
scenes!' he said smoothly, Us the sunny haired
actress tried to clean pink satin slipper with
ammonia and then made wry face because
the pungent chemical went up her nose"
ruthlessly. Il wouldn't stand it, by Jove, not
| for a minute"
! "Oh, yes you would" said the little lady,
making another ammonia dab; you'd stand
a great deal more than do; you'd jump If
you got the chance, hsl hal You see, we all
expect too much Now, before | went upon
the stage l used to imagine that each evening
l should be shown to dainty little dressing
room, richly carpeted, handsomely furnished,
be-looking glassed, be-chaired and be-sofad.
| was idotic enough to suppose that tho man
agement would supply wardrobe in which
| could keep my dresses, my properties and
everything to which | laid claim. Instead OF
all this-oh, my heart sinks when remember
! it,
"You don't mean to say that you don't get
decent places to dress and undress in" asked
the radiant adolescent possessing himself OF
/ a pink slipper and standing it on its lttlo big
heel.
IN THE OUT TOWNS.
"LiSten,n she said tragically, striking an
attitude like the favorite pose of Fanny DaV
export in Fedora" "I'm not going to tell
you anything about New York dressing
rooms because-well, l don't know very
much about them, and my engagements
ahem!-call me principally to the provinces,
but can tell you all about the accommoda-
tons out Of town. They are simply villain
Gus. They are disgrace to the managers OF
theatres. Now, in one town | visted-l
won't mention names-I was shown my dress
ing room by the manager himself, who told
me he thought it such an improvement on
the general run Of dressing rooms. 1t was
a wooden box, not as large as one
! of the bathing rooms at the Battery
baths On one Of the walls was piece
of cracked mirror, which made my poor nose
look as though it were cut up into sections,
and gave me ghastly tint which no amount
Of rouge would remove. There were chlnks
everywhere, and if there had been one OF
those peeping Toms, one of whom frightened
! Mrs. Langtry 50 much at Birmingham, |
| grieved to think of the predicament l should
have been in. Was it coldi Well, l should say
it was That night / shivered In my poor lit.
tie slippers-those very pink satin ones. !
came to the theatre from a hot dining room,
in the 1ull process of digesting my repast.
You can imagine with what danger to my
health | was forced to undreSs, put on low
bodice. and stand with trembling shoulders
while rouged myself, gloved myself, anu
concluded myself If my constitution hadn't
become accustomed to such exposure should
have died I'm going to tell you more terrible
things. At one theatre / went TO, l was
positively shown to dressing room without
a door-not a vestige of one If l chose to
dress in it, must do so in spite of the stage
carpenters and men Of all work who passed
and repassed'-
But YOU didn't choose, | trustP
mo, thought it best not 10 do 50. de
clned to divest myself Of "a stitch until a tenn
porary door Of some kind or other had been
rigged up for me. OF course the men Of all
work were most unwilling to help me, 50 |
kept every one waiting by first hunting for a
sheet. mailing it carefully where the door
should have been, and then dressing. Next
dav | found q door-a brand new thing, but
still a door, and though it had no lock, | was
very thankful for it.
AN INFESTED DEN.
aWhile I was still new TO the business,
continued the sunny haired actress, sitting
| down by the radiant adolesccnt, Il had to
play the part of a bride in little far away
place with one theatre-a grand opera house,
of course, where grand opera never could,
would or should be heard. had maSniil'
cent white satin dress, Oh which prded my
self extremely | caused it to be sent to the
theatre to my dressing room TO await me
there in the evening. | went early. may
sav that was feeling very nervous and un-
strung. and when feel like that [simperingl
everything upsets me- Well, the evening
came | was shown to my dressing room.
Such place. Such q vile, cold, contempti-
bile. bare denl | was undressed and was just
taking up my white bridal robe 20 Fut ON,
when to my disgust, my horror, my loathlng'
saw insects crawling over it. uttered
shrek, dropped it, and | think tainted.
ANYWAY don't remember how two of my
colleagues got into my room, but there they
were Ny den was literally infested as with
q plague. There were cockroacheS in all di-
rections-cockroaches to right, cockroaches
to left-the most disgusting persistent, con-
| tinuous stream Of the-to me-terrible little
insects What could | doi | had either to
put nv dress on or disappoint the audience
and relinqush my salary. put my dress
on went shudderingly through my part.
but my cockroaches kept making me amental
visit. and when the critics next morning said
that seemed to be playing with preOccupied
mind | think they were tolerably correct in
their surmises.
an very great many theatres" she went
on, "you find the walls Of your dressing room
if you can dignity them by the name OF
walls-covercd with legends which some
playful predecessor i'll fit of abstraction has
left to Immortality. They are mostly excla-
nations, and though they are biblical they
are not elegant You get weary of Jumping
Jehosaphat' and Holy Moses, when you see